Many of us have heard that phrase from many years ago. OK - Bruce Rule has really gotten my old SOSUS juices flowing. I got to thinking yesterday, about all of the contributions there were to our success. One of our most important and dependable "partners" was the VP community. Imagine searching along an LOB just because someone, somewhere said there was something there? Often at night, often in crappy WX conditions, but our partners usually came through. In the early days of Type Six missions, it would usually be "something Maru", or one of the many "Maersk vessels". But eventually, as you know, those missions became a lot more meaningful.
First the P2(V) Neptunes, then the P3 Orions. But always an enthusiastic crew. The Canadian Argus were phenomenal as well. Some of the best officers assigned to NAVFACs had VP backgrounds. John Curtis and Dick Porter immediately come to mind. There were dozens more.
As we reflect on our history, how about a shout out to the guys who put exclamation points at the end of our paragraphs!
You got my "juices" flowing again, despite my best intentions.
While in Pearl on the way back from the previously discussed visit to Adak,
I asked to see the oft reported Nitaka Maru (NM) - and was horrified. This was
so extensive and so embarrassing it may never have been acknowledged. I
left that decision up to the EC.
The original error was the result of a VP "correlation" with the NM an incredible
distance out an LOB.
Do I correctly infer from your post that they finally coughed it up?
If so, there was a lot that had to be regurgitated for an appreciable
time period.
Oh well, at least it raised their batting average whereas our usual
function was to lower that average.
Since George Miller was from PAC, he almost always did those reviews.
There was one stretch when they had gone 0 for 11; then they sent
in material basically challenging us to shoot that one down. George
did something very clever and down it went: 0 for 12.
We never got any response; they just cancelled it. Similar issues did
not arise in LANT because we were so close to them and had very
good comms. They often checked it out with us before going
"public."
Bruce,
The real deal about Barbers Point was it had the most unusual station peculiarities that were never identified by extensive tracking exercises prior to bringing it on line. (my opinion) Every one was in a hurry. Seamounts, bearings being reflected and screwed and more. I had more "Heated Discussions" with my buddy, D. L. Williams over Barbers Point detection issues that I care to remember. As it ended up we remain great buddies but would never agree on issues while he was the OWO and I was a Watch Coordinator of the same section at Barbers Point.
Maybe Some of the friction was really the Positions we had at the time??!!
C. E. Cable
OTC USN Ret
Your problem reminds me of an issue I had in 1975 when the time
of the year told me where an item of interest was; however, another
input put it 300 nm away from my position. I would not budge and
it was finally determined that an entire sector from the other input
was miswired and had been since IOC 10 years earlier. Since there
were only very rarely any inputs for the involved sector, no one had
noticed.
